The Association for Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy in Ireland (APPI) is one of the accrediting bodies for psychoanalytic practitioners. APPI began life in 1993 and rapidly developed into a Professional Association comprised of members whose clinical work is based upon the practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy from a Freudian-Lacanian perspective. In 2016, APPI became a constituent member organisation within the Psychoanalytic Section of the Irish Council for Psychotherapy (ICP). Members of APPI, as well as being bound by the rules and ethics of APPI, are also subject to the ethical and training requirements of the ICP. Membership is in line with the European Association of Psychotherapy standards. It is restricted to those with an appropriate formal training in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy. It is open to those whose clinical training meets with the requirements of APPI and the ICP and whose clinical practice is in conformity with the Code of Ethics and Practice of the Association. In keeping with the Freudian principle, personal analysis is held as central to this and is viewed by APPI as the indispensable means by which the practice of psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy can be transmitted, studied and understood.

The primary focus of all APPI members is clinical work. Many of our members work in private practice as psychoanalysts and psychoanalytic psychotherapists. Members of APPI also work in various psychotherapeutic settings throughout Ireland – in the public and semi-state sector, psychiatric hospitals, primary care services, maternity hospitals, counselling services, addiction services and with the most marginalised of society.

Full members of APPI offer psychoanalysis and/or psychoanalytic psychotherapy to individuals, to trainee therapists and counsellors and to those who work with people and who would benefit from this approach.

APPI runs a significant programme of events throughout the year; hosts and organises seminars and conferences, involving both local and international speakers; provides ongoing professional development programmes and ongoing training for psychoanalytic psychotherapists by way of study programmes and clinical seminars. APPI publishes a bi-annual journal – Lacunae. Many APPI members are involved in teaching psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and other related subjects in universities and colleges.

Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy are ‘talk therapies’. The person who is troubled, or suffering from distressing symptoms, or who has encountered some life difficulties, attends sessions once or twice per week, depending on circumstances. These sessions are an invitation to speak whatever comes into mind, without organising the material, sanitising it or censoring it for the analyst’s ears. There is no insistence from the analyst on the sort of thing to be spoken about. All that is asked is that the person speaks without self-censoring.

In our everyday lives, we’re mindful of what we say, and to whom we speak – often with very good reason. It’s not easy to allow ourselves the freedom to speak without restraint. The psychoanalytic space is a freed-up space, which facilitates that work, and the relation to the analyst is not like any other of our relationships in life. The analyst listens for the repetitions and blockages which have been shaping our lives. Over the course of the work a different relationship to our own existence emerges. A successful psychoanalysis or psychoanalytic psychotherapy allows the patient to create new and less painful ways of thinking about existence, so that we may live it differently.

Please visit our website if you would like to find about our events, or if you would like to have a look at our journal or would like more information about us.